Indigenous voices being marginalized at WIPO?

TheWorld Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is currently playing host to the 30th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (backgrounder availablehere).

The meeting is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, where delegations from each of WIPO's 188 member states are in the process of negotiating language for future international legal instruments to ensure the effective protection of traditional knowledge (TK), traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) and genetic resources (GR). The theme of the 30th session is Genetic Resources, withparticular emphasison developing mechanisms to avoid erroneously granted patents and ensuring and tracking compliance with access and benefit sharing disclosure frameworks.

There has been a slow, steady move away from an "effective and balanced" approach to protecting competing rights and toward a markedly pro-capital, pro-Western framework grounded in IP protections

Indigenous participation is being hampered by a chronic lack of funds; as these supports are made via voluntary contribution by WIPO member states, there is concern these funds could dry up completely if members wish to further marginalize Indigenous voices

The increasingly narrow focus on Westernized conceptions of IP that are fundamentally incompatible with Indigenous worldviews

Current references to UNDRIP Article 31 in the negotiating text remain "bracketed," indicating a lack of consensus among WIPO members and the strong resistance of several countries to acknowledge the sui generis nature of Indigenous TK

“Traditional knowledge is not a form of information and not a form of intellectual property,” stressed Preston Hardison, a policy analyst for the Tulalip Tribesin the United States and WIPO delegate. Rather, it is “a form of cultural heritage…a way of life; it is embodied in the land, in the ancestors, in their relationship with their kin.” By construing genetic resources derived from Indigenous TK as patentable information, Hardison worries that misappropriation of these resources will become an even greater problem than it is now.

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Chris Koziol is the Project Manager of ABS Canada, a SSRHC-funded research initiative based at the University of Ottawa, where he is currently a Juris Doctor candidate. Chris recently completed a Masters in International Affairs at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, where he also worked as a teaching assistant. He is a 2013 honours graduate of the Arthur Kroger College of Public Affairs at Carleton University where he minored in law and human rights. Chris is originally from Victoria on Canada's beautiful west coast.